John McDowell

Music for Farms performs at June 4 Benefit

// June 1st, 2011 // Comments Off // Featured events, News

Inch by Inch… Row by Row
An evening of fine food and song to benefit
Cropsey Community Farm

A Rockland Farm Alliance Project
Hosted by The Trustees, Directors and Advisors of Rockland Country Day School, Rockland Farm Alliance and The Historical Society of Rockland County.

In a landmark collaboration, Rockland Farm Alliance, Rockland Country Day School and The Historical Society of Rockland County have come together to raise awareness about the rich history of our local farms, as well as to celebrate and benefit Rockland’s historic new addition to this farming tradition: Cropsey Community Farm.

Local and organic hors d’oeuvres will be served
Cash bar including many locally sourced wines, beer and spirits

Musical performances by
John McDowell and Music for Farms
Billy Roues and Friends
and Rockland Country Day School Students

Where: Rockland Country Day School – 34 Kings Highway, Congers, NY

When: June 4, 2011 – 4 to 8 pm

To purchase tickets, become a sponsor, or advertise in the event journal, please click here for a printable version.

For more information on the event contact:
Dianne Walsh c/o Rockland Farm Alliance
220 South Little Tor Road
New City NY  10956
P: 845-634-3167
events@rocklandfarm.org

We hope to see you there! And thank you.

The Rockland Farm Alliance
www.rocklandfarm.org

“Languages Lost and Found” to be screened at Lift Nyack

// March 23rd, 2011 // Comments Off // Calendar, News

Languages Lost and Found: Speaking & Whistling the Mamma Tongue is a short film by Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis, featuring music by John McDowell, celebrating diverse linguistic and cultural practices from around the world. Watch a short preview, or click on the image above.

“Languages Lost and Found” at Rubin Museum

// February 18th, 2011 // Comments Off // Calendar, News

NORTHERN LIGHTS STUDIO MONTAGE © JON H. DAVIS

Languages Lost and Found: Speaking & Whistling the Mamma Tongue is a short film celebrating diverse linguistic and cultural practices from around the world.  Watch a short preview, or click on the image above.

This film screening and discussion will be held on Wednesday, February 23rd from 1-2pm at the Rubin Museum of Art, in conjunction with UNESCO designated International Mother Language Day and the museum’s Lunchmatters program as part of the Body Language Series. The Rubin Museum is at 150 West 17th St. (at 7th Ave.) in New York City. An additional screening will take place on Friday, February 25th at 3pm at Central Connecticut State University, Torp Theater, Davidson Hall, 1615 Stanley St. in New Britain, CT. More info is at www.theatre.ccsu.edu/directions.html

In footage spanning five continents–from rainforest longhouses in Borneo to dramatic mountaintops in the Canary Islands–dynamic visions of art, music, and dance are woven into a vivid, global mosaic. The way we think, speak, and express our ideas is a reflection of our language. This film reminds us of how quickly some languages are disappearing while introducing the native tongue as an all-important vehicle for maintaining culture, sharing traditional wisdom, and envisioning the future.

Academy award-winning actor William Hurt narrates the film, which features music by composer John McDowell, known for his evocative score for the Oscar-winning documentary, Born Into Brothels. Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis (co-producers and directors) are cultural reporters and explorers who pursue everything from rituals to royalty in far-flung destinations around the world, while keeping their eyes and ears open to the unexpected. At Northern Lights Studio, Brooks and Davis tell tales of exotic travel and culture infused with a refined sensibility through a variety of media: video documentaries, text, photos, graphics, music, and art.

“The melody of this cultural collage is soul-piercing; if we lose our mother tongue, we may lose the essence of who we are.”
-Juliette Blevins, Director of Endangered Language Initiative

John McDowell creates original live score for Toronto Art Installation

// September 21st, 2010 // Comments Off // Calendar, News

The River Peace is large-scale public participatory art installation by Thomas + Guinevere with the collaboration of composer John McDowell and presented by The Historic Distillery District in partnership with Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 and Le Labo. Saturday, October 2nd, 6:57pm to Sunrise.

The music, composed and directed by John McDowell, will be based on the principals of Indian Raga. Using this as a basis, but adapting to Western genres, musicians will collaborate on the workings and nuances of particular themes, memorize several brief segments and phrases and collaborate on their playing.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s concept and scope of Satyagraha, or non-violent resistance, The River Peace is a mass participatory sculptural movement and sound performance installation; a giant metaphoric river where the content is not water, but a mass human meditation and expression of peace.

It will take the form of a 1,500-foot long luminescent sculpture, stretching around and through the historic laneways in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District, which you are invited to help carry and move as a meditative expression while musicians and dancers create a mass orchestral and choreographic illusion of a river in constant flow – with everyone’s cell phones providing the installation’s luminosity.

The sculpture is made-up of 150 – 12ft light-weight telescopic poles/masts. Mallory Industries who make the poles, were also kind enough to cut and provide a longer 30″ version of a yard which will be attached to the top of the pole and to which will be secured (grommeted) the 1500 ft length of bubble-wrap through which the light from the public’s cell-phones will shine.

As the sculpture moves through The Distillery, an aerial perspective of The River Peace will be captured on video and projected onto the walls of Mill Street Rack House (a collaboration with Luminad and Rattail Films.)

(If you have a QR (Quick Response) reader installed on your phone, you can turn it into colour-shifting lighting instrument. A PDF menu of QR Codes will be available for download at www.thomasandguinevere.com starting September 30, so you can practice. The QR menu colour sequences will also be passed out on Nuit Blanche as well. But if if you can’t scan the codes, simple cell phone light is totally accepted.)

To see more details on how to participate or volunteer, please visit www.thomasandguinevere.com or  email TheRiverPeace@gmail.com

A Fall Harvest of Music for Farms in Chestnut Ridge

// August 21st, 2010 // Comments Off // News

John McDowell teams up with Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich, cellist Julia MacLaine, and string bass player Evan Premo to create the musical ensemble Music For Farms which will perform a benefit concert for the Rockland Farm Alliance entitled “A Musical Harvest” at the Threefold Auditorium at 260 Hungry Hollow Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door and are $20 ($15 for students, $10 for children). For more information, call 845-362-0207 or email events@rocklandfarm.org. (more…)